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Carnival in Rio is exuberant and outrageous. With two million people attending each day, Rio becomes a place where anything goes and alcohol flows. Drink-driving incidents increase by 50% during the period.

To live up to their ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ effort, Antarctica Beer decided to help carnivalgoers get home safely after drinking. To do this they created the ‘Beer Turnstile’ at metro stations which accepted (presumably empty) Antarctica beer cans as tickets.

All passengers had to do was scan the bar code on the beer can, and the turnstile unlocked. All the beer cans collected were then donated for recycling.

This effective campaign took advantage of a potentially dangerous behavior, and leveraged innovative technology to provide brand utility and promote safety.

The Beer Turnstile received an average of a thousand passengers an hour and the number of drunk drivers caught went down by 43%.

BRAND UTILITY

Rather than just inter-rupting consumers’ lives, brands are increasingly looking to provide useful services or applications that give people something they actually need – without demanding an immediate return.

EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL

With the advent of always-on, ubiquitous internet access, and digitization, our actual and virtual lives are increasingly starting to blend into one.

Novelist Ryu Murakami plans to release his latest novel exclusively for digital bookworms through Apple Inc.’s iPad ahead of the print version. Mr. Murakami, the acclaimed author of over 15 novels including “Coin Locker Babies” and “In the Miso Soup”, replaced the publishers with a software company to help develop the e-book titled “A Singing Whale,” or “Utau Kujira” in Japanese. The digital package will include video content and set to music composed by Academy Award winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, according to the Japanese business daily Nikkei. The newspaper reports the e-book will cost 1,500 yen ($17) and will be ready to download pending Apple’s approval. Apple Japan and Mr. Murakami did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.

A digital out-of-home campaign aimed at increasing awareness of Delta Airline’s flight schedule in the New York City area accomplished its task – by a measure of more than 28%. From February to mid June, the airline and its ad agency, Digitas, ran a campaign using both DOOH and traditional media. Edison Research, which surveyed consumers prior to the launch and during it, also found that business travelers’ perception of Delta’s international schedule increased by 26% and overall awareness by 15% (via Digital Sign Today).

How Delta Microtargets Business Travelers
When Delta Airlines wanted to reach business travelers just in the New York area last spring, it decided to test the idea of microtargeting with place-based media. So it teamed up with out-of-home vertical SeeSaw Networks to create multiple 15-second spots customized to a wide array of venues across five different digital out-of-home vendors.

The Twitter name “@arjanelfassed” is not only the Twitter account of one Arjan El Fassed; it’s also the name of an actual location, “@ arjanelfassed tweetstreet,” which is now a street in a Palestinian refuge camp. The Dutch website Jouw Eigen Straatnam charges $146 for each of 200 street names in the Askar camp and gives the proceeds to the Palestinian Child Care Society (PCCS), according to Al Fassed, to fund “cultural and expressive after-school activities” for the up to 1,000 children in the camp at its youth center. Part of the program’s allure, he says, is that the corresponding street signs are temporary. “Since a refugee camp by definition should not remain permanent, selling street names of the camp is a creative way to connect people and support these children after school,” said Arjan El Fassed. “Naming the street to my Twitter account is a symbolic way to connect both online and offline with the children of Askar.”

Town Uses Billboard to Promote Facebook Page
“Sadly, no one talks about billboards much any longer”, opines Steve Hall, “So why are we talking about the lowly billboard today? Social media, of course. After all, social media is the only thing anyone cares about these days, right? It’s big news when a billboard is used to promote a Facebook page which is exactly what Northern Wisconson’s Forest CountyChamber of Commerce recently did. Located just south of Lakewood on HWY 32, travelers from Milwaukee and Chicago heading north will see the board which carries an invitation from the Crandon Chamber to ‘Become a friend of Crandon’ on Facebook.”

Originally created by Rebar, San Francisco art and design collective, PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens independently but simultaneously temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. Anyone can participate in PARK(ing) Day, though it is strictly a non-commercial project, intended to promote creativity, civic engagement, critical thinking, unscripted social interactions, generosity and play.

Some people (notably my sartorially-challenged chum Piers, and internet planning luminary Russell Davies) are not fans of what thery refer to as Urban Spam. I on the other hand have a soft spot for these special builds. The stream of coffee on this piece of “ambient” media is actually a curved lamppost. The faux carafe is attached to the top of the post, around the light, and the cup, brown with the signature yellow McDonald’s “M,” is wrapped around the bottom. “For two weeks they were giving away free coffee. Our job was to say it in a big way with ads that got noticed, encouraging people to grab a cup,” says Bryan Collins, vice president and creative director at Cossette, the Vancouver-based agency that came up with the idea. The agency wanted to target morning commuters on trains, in cars and on the street with an alternative element that would also showcase McDonald’s new cup design.